Doctor Who - [083] - [Target Novel 09] -The Android Invasion

by Terrance Dicks

  "What's all this about androids, young lady?" he spluttered.

  "They're robots, duplicates of people on Earth. The Doctor will explain..."

  As Sarah finished untying Faraday she heard a noise behind her and turned.

  Styggron was covering her with a blaster. He seemed even more astonished than she was. "The enterprising Earth girl." Sarah stepped forward and he raised the weapon. "No, don't move. This is a neutron blaster, it will annihilate you immediately. I heard the sounds of an intruder. I hardly expected to find it was you."

  "I suppose you thought I was still a prisoner on your rotten planet!"

  Styggron shook his massive head in amazement. "I know the Doctor managed to escape. I constructed an android of him as a precaution. But you—you must indeed have a charmed life."

  "What are you babbling about Styggron?"

  "You were to have been the first human victim of the virus that will destroy all humanity." He held up a sealed phial. "See, it is here. How did you escape the virus? Did you not drink the water?"

  "Water?" Sarah was horrified. "You mean that water you sent me in the cell was infected?"

  Crayford appeared in the doorway behind Styggron. Sarah saw with surprise that he wore no eye-patch, and his other eye seemed perfectly all right.

  Crayford's face was white and his eyes glittered feverishly. Sarah thought he looked like a man on the point of total breakdown. "You have betrayed me, Styggron!" he screamed.

  Styggron laughed. "Betrayed you, Crayford? I used you, as I use the androids. But I fear you are no longer of any value to me." He raised his blaster.

  With the courage of madness, Crayford jumped on him, knocking the blaster aside, and sending the phial flying from Styggron's hand.

  With a bellow of rage, Styggron flung Crayford away and fired. The force of the neutron blast slammed Crayford's dead body into the corner of the hold.

  As Styggron swung the blaster to cover Sarah, and the others a tall figure appeared in the doorway behind him. "Doctor!" screamed Sarah. "Look out!" Before Styggron could turn, an arm took him around the throat. The Doctor's other hand reached in front of Styggron, trying to get a grip on the neutron blaster.

  With a roar of rage the Kraal broke free. He jumped back to get a clear shot but as he did so, a foot shot out to trip him. Styggron crashed over backwards. His head thudded down onto the phial of virus solution which had rolled unnoticed into the corner.

  The impact of Styggron's massive skull shattered the phial. A pool of colorless liquid spread around his head. The effect of the virus in its concentrated form was immediate and terrible. Styggron's head began to dissolve, like a ball of wax in a roaring flame. Soon it was a shapeless, horrible blob. Such was the strength in the stocky figure that the dying Kraal's body thrashed about for a moment longer. By some dying reflex, its finger tightened on the trigger. The blaster fired and the full force of its impact took the tall figure standing above him full in the chest. It crumpled and lay still.

  "No," sobbed Sarah. "No! Oh Doctor!" She was kneeling to examine the fallen body, when a familiar voice said, "Spare no tears for him, Sarah, He was only an android!"

  Sarah looked up. Standing in the doorway was the Doctor, miraculously unhurt. He pointed to the huddled shape beside her. "That was only my replica—an android."

  Sarah still couldn't take it in. "An android," she said dazedly. "But it attacked Styggron."

  "I fitted it with a shielding device and then reprogrammed it," said the Doctor. "I decided to turn one of their own weapons against them."

  Sarah straightened up. "Please, Doctor, don't ever do anything like that again! One of you's quite enough!"

  The Doctor smiled and helped her to her feet. There was still much to be done. The immobilized androids would have to be collected and dismantled before the low level scanner, beam could be switched off. But soon life in the Space Research Center—and in Devesham village—would return to normal. Marshal Chedaki would wait in vain for Styggron's signal to bring the invasion fleet of the Kraals to an unsuspecting Earth. With Styggron dead, his master plan had come to nothing. The android invasion was over.